We have recently received the updated version of the certification of beneficial ownership form and realize that there is not a spot for the percent of ownership. Our form is from our forms vendor and provided to us thru our Core processor as an online print document. Can someone tell me if the percentage of ownership has to be listed on the form or not? I know it was information listed on the form provided by FinCen. The percentage amount will be listed on our Core system just not on the actual certification form.

Thanks

Where is the percentage of ownership on FinCEN's form?

FinCEN's form does not require the percentage of ownership.

The sole rationale for including the percentage of ownership voluntarily was to be able to evaluate whether an OFAC hit on a beneficial owner constituted a hit on the legal entity customer. Bankers have so over interpreted its inclusion that I no longer think adding it is a good idea.

Sorry - I was looking at another form that I had received in a seminar I had attended last year and just assumed that it was a requirement from FinCEN since it was listed on the form.

Thank you both for your help!

I have been gong back and forth on including % specifically for OFAC. Is there a down side I am not seeing to including it? It does seem a bit pointless given we have NEVER had an OFAC hit. But now that we have this fool proof Beneficial Ownership thing we will certainly uncover all kinds of "OFAC types" that have been hiding behind entities....

I really can't see a pressing reason to have it. It isn't required and, frankly, it is just going to be easier for most to have a policy where they OFAC all BO's - otherwise, someone will forget the one BO that has over 50% ownership that the examiners/auditors will look at.

We will be performing OFAC on all BOs. Our core has fields for BOs and they will be scanned along with everything else. Just easier that way.

My understanding (which could very well be wrong) is that if you get an OFAC match on a Beneficial Owner who is less than 51% of an owner then you do not freeze the funds as they do not own the majority of the entity. So if you don't gather percent of ownership how do you determine a course of action if you did ever get an OFAC match on a Beneficial Owner? Perhaps the procedure could be to "cross that bridge when you come to it" since it will likely not happen (at least based on our OFAC match history)?

You're expected to OFAC all beneficial owners on your certification. If you have an individual with a positive match to the OFAC list, and that individual owns 50%+ of your legal entity, the legal entity will also be reported to OFAC as a positive match. Conversely, if you get a positive match on an entity, and you're aware of an individual with 50% or more ownership of that entity, the individual is also reported as a positive match and funds frozen as applicable. That's the value of obtaining ownership %.

You are not expected to OFAC all beneficial owners. OFAC is a risk based decision. We have made the decision to do OFAC on our BO's but we are not capturing % of ownership. If we ever have an OFAC hit, and that is a huge if, we will contact the customer and inquire on the % at that time.

We will be doing the same. IF it happens, we will deal with it.